Judge: Trucker knew he carried drugs

A judge has ruled that David Joseph MacDonald knew the three crates on the back of his 18-wheeler contained pot and magic mushrooms.

An anonymous tip led the Mounties to be on the lookout for MacDonald’s red Peterbilt tractor hauling a flat-deck trailer on Sept. 30, 2015, as it rolled into Nova Scotia.

After an officer from the Rawdon detachment pulled him over that afternoon on Highway 14 in Brooklyn, the three crates on the back of MacDonald’s trailer were found to hold 1,315 vacuum packed bags each containing 226 grams of pot and three 500-gram bags of magic mushrooms.

Methamphetamine and cocaine were also found in his possession but not enough to warrant a trafficking charge — he pleaded guilty to simple possession of both those substances.

However, he fought the possession for the purpose of trafficking charge on both the marijuana and the magic mushrooms with the argument that he didn’t know they were in the crates.

The bill of lading stated they contained a refurbished piano and antique musical instruments.

“The accused submitted that he was a ‘blind courier,’” wrote Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Gregory Warner in his Sept. 14 ruling.

“His actions unequivocally say otherwise.”

Warner relied heavily on two fraudulent bills of lading that he says a truck driver of MacDonald’s experience would have recognized.

The documents that accompany any cargo stated that the shipment for Day and Ross was picked up at the company’s shipping facility in Kelowna, B.C., and destined for the company’s facility in Dartmouth.

MacDonald, an independent owner/operator, has never carried goods for Day and Ross so he would not have been able to carry the company’s cargo.

As well, one of the two bills of lading did not have the weight of the crates marked on it.

Therefore if it had gone through the Kelowna Day and Ross facility, as the forged bill of lading claimed, it would have been weighed by staff there and the proper weight included.

The RCMP also seized two iPhones, two iPads and a Blackberry from MacDonald’s truck.

One of the iPhones and both the iPads were locked and encrypted, the Blackberry had been wiped of data. Searching through the one unlocked iPhone, police found a photo of vacuum sealed bags of cash on a bed from sometime before the incident.

Though MacDonald did carry some legal cargo on his truck during the trip, the truck was empty of all but the three crates when he was pulled over. At that time he was heading away from Dartmouth on Highway 14.